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Yesterday Apple was awarded a very important patent by the United States Trademark & Patent Office, Patently Apple reported. This NFC technology allows credit card companies to send statements directly to a user’s iTunes account for purchases made using an NFC-enabled iPhone. BGR reports,

Account holders will also be able to allow a secondary account holder, such as a child, to make purchases on the same card while allowing the primary account holder to control spending and implement various limits.

Even though NFC technology has been featured in a number of Android devices, some believe that the technology won’t go mainstream in a number of markets until an iPhone is equipped with a mobile payment solution.

This patent is called “Low Threshold Face Recognition,” and would allow a user to unlock an iPhone or iPad using facial recognition. Apple’s patent could allow the device’s camera to recognize the user even when the device is in sleep mode. In other words, the device’s camera would remain active when sleeping, detect the user, and unlock the device without having to press the sleep/wake button. This could, in theory, allow a user to bypass the current Slide to Unlock feature. 9to5Mac shared more info about this new feature:

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the system would be the ability for the device’s settings to be customized depending on the user. For example, when detecting a specific user, iOS could set personalized wallpapers, notification settings, and custom configurations for apps. This would provide multiple user logins, allowing iOS users to easily share a device among family or coworkers.

Apple’s system would differ from other face recognition systems by ignoring face biometrics. AsPatentlyApple explained, “The face recognition techniques are based on a simple, weighted difference map, rather than traditional (and computationally expensive) correlation matching.”Apple’s system could detect “high information portions” of a face such as the eyes, mouth, or the tip of a nose. In addition, an “orange-distance filter” could be applied to determine variations in skin tone and detect the “likely presence” of a user. This could detect the distance between the device and the user’s face, as well as the user’s “level of attentiveness.”

Way back in 2010, even before the iPad launch, The Wall Street Journal reported Apple was experimenting with the ability to recognize individual users with the device’s camera. Today’s patent was originally filed in 2009, reported 9to5Mac

Source – 9to5Mac

Bloomberg has shared an interesting report that talks about HTC had acquired few patents from Google last week and yesterday it filed claims of patent infringement against Apple.

Google had taken ownership of the patents less than a year ago, with four of the patents originating from Motorola Inc., three from Openwave Systems Inc. and two from Palm Inc., according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records. Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, wouldn’t discuss reasons for the nine transfers to HTC.

9to5Mac also shared this info about HTC’s intention behind this entire issue, while there aren’t many more details regarding Google’s specific motivation, Apple’s ongoing infringement claims against Android vendors (notably HTC and Samsung) certainly doesn’t help.

Six days after acquiring the nine patents, HTC today filed a suit in Delaware against Apple claiming patent infringement on four of the patents (originally issued to Motorola) that they acquired from Google. However, they aren’t letting the remaining patents go to waste either, they also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission for five of the others (two originally owned by Palm and three by Openwave).